Five children have been rescued by the Children’s department and their mother arrested for allegedly neglecting and mistreating them in Mitituni Machakos County.
The police, with the help of the area Chief and the Children’s department locked up Mueni Mwanza at Mitituni police post on Saturday, after raiding her single-room makeshift, where she was living with her five children at Mitituni village in Machakos.
Machakos Sub-County Children’s Officer Emily Kimanzi said the children were all rescued and placed at Grape Vine Children’s home in Utawala, Nairobi. This is after obtaining a court order to rescue them and their mother arrested and waiting to be arraigned in court on Monday.
“We have today rescued five children from their mother at Mitituni village who has been beating them up and neglecting them for long. All the children are malnourished and in bad condition so they will get medical treatment first,” said Kimanzi.
Kimanzi said the mother of the children had threatened to kill her and the neighbors if they ever tried to intervene or try to help the children, because she normally left the kids unattended and without food. The mother is expecting her sixth child and the father to the other kids is unknown according to her relatives and neighbors.
“It has been difficult to track the mother and my efforts to rescue the children have been met with lots of obstacles since the woman has been threatening to kill me and everyone trying to help,” Kimanzi said.
The Children’s Officer added that the children are aged between 2 ½ and 15 years. The 2-year-old had pneumonia from the poor living conditions and had to be rushed to hospital for treatment
Ms Kimanzi further added that she had been following the matter since last year after she received reports of the woman and her ill treatment towards her own biological children from both the public and the local administrators.
On his part, Mitituni area Chief Ancient Nzioki said they have always reported and taken the woman to the children’s court, but she always sneaks away. He noted that the first born had run away from home after severe mistreatment from the mother
“The first born isn’t in school, we took him to school last week but he sneaked out. We don’t know where he is but we are looking for him,” said chief Nzioki.
The chief said he is happy the children are finally going to get help by being placed in the children’s home since they had been continuously mistreated and neglected by their mother.
By Ann Kangero
